238 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



That night we made all our arrangements 

 for a start into Svanetia on the morrow, 

 and were debating on the advisability of 

 havins: one more vio;il at the nest below the 

 glacier, when a huge array of black clouds 

 sweeping up our valley from the south-west 

 settled the question for us. These clouds 

 were the vanguard of winter, and next morn- 

 ing all the higher mountains wore a thin mantle 

 of newly-fallen snow, while in the valleys 

 rain had swollen all the streams, and made 

 our party pass a most unpleasant night. 



Our men under their awning covered with 

 my skins slept and would have been fairly 

 happy had not the rain put out their fire ; but 

 for Frank and myself, in our ill-arranged 

 little tente d'ahri, it was absolutely necessary 

 that we should sit upright in constrained 

 positions to prevent our bodies touching the 

 canvas, for whenever that happened in came 

 our enemy the rain. So we sat up all night, 



